Ivermectin: An Effective Therapeutic for Long COVID

Ivermectin as an antiviral is an effective therapeutic for long COVID. The key is to optimize and augment innate immunity via enhancement of the gut microbiome, as well as, improving the required micronutrient and trace minerals, that are necessary co-factors for the body's internal wound healing-repair system.

Most of the body's innate immunity or gatekeeper protection is known to be located in the gut. Additionally, when the gut becomes leaky via loosening of the epithelial tight junctions, this causes a breakdown in the body's innate immunity. Thus, this is one of the main components of the approach to my long COVID therapeutic protocol. Keep the gut sealed and the gut microbiome happy, and the body with medications such as Ivermectin can reverse almost any injury or damage over time.

Ivermectin as an anti-viral treats most viruses including Epstein-Barr Virus, Herpes Zoster, and HIV. The mechanism for this anti-viral activity has to be further studied at the petri dish level, but it does stop or minimize the replicative ability of viruses, including RNA viruses, which are very labile and unpredictable. Hence, no cure for HIV to date. As a Biochemist, after reviewing the structure of Ivermectin, I am sure that one of the main mechanisms is intercalating with the genetic code of the viruses and thus the resulting termination of the replicative process of the virus, with subsequent death of virus and apoptosis of host cell.

My dosing regimen is based on the 1996 FDA approval dosing regimen of Ivermectin. I dose at 0.2mg/kg using ideal body weight based on height. If the actual body weight is less than the ideal body weight based on height, I use the actual body weight. I only dispense 12 mg, 15 mg, and 18 mg at 5 days, 7 days or 10 days then twice weekly for 6 weeks then every 7 days thereafter. I normally round up 2nd to overweight and obesity issues in the general population. I only round down when the patient is over 70 years old, since I always take muscle mass into account and decline in liver and kidney function over time. Regarding the consideration of muscle mass, I only dispense 5 and 7 days protocol to women secondary to this reasoning/logic.

Since for me all medications are adjuncts to care, and are not silver bulletsor the root source of healing or curing disease; I do a deep dive with the innate immunity focusing on optimizing the gut microbiome and sealing any leaky gut to augment any deficits in innate immunity.

For the fall out of disability and exhausting chronic disease from COVID-19, I highly recommend the deployment of accessible and affordable care, and therefore the achievement of health equity nationally by the espousal of the maximal utilization of Telemedicine/Telehealth technology, and the data mining required for the subsequent elucidation of long COVID symptoms and COVID-19 disease burden, and downstream clinical sequelae.